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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Well that didn't last long :-( Level 2 and i'm outa there. It was a 6max event and my table was fairly decent. with only 5000 starting chips the blinds were starting to count right from the off. I really didn't want to play too tight but maybe i played a little loose. I got no luck though and was left with just over 1000 chips in level 1 after a flopped flush was beaten by a bigger one. I coulda/shoulda gone bust there maybe but with the blinds now at 50/100 i was in terrible shape. My final hand gave me A8 v TJ with a flop of A9Q. It all went in and the turned K left me drawing dead and eliminated much earlier than i wanted.

The whole experience was awesome though. The Amazon room is huge. The TV table is in the corner and yesterday saw a FT consisting of Negreanu, Hellmuth, Chan, Galfond, Juanda & Benyamine! Really strange to see all these stars and to be playing in the same tournies.

After i was knocked out i sat down to play some 2/5 cash and after 4 hours i left the table $9 down lol.

Met the mob (minus Ram) for a few beers early evening along with 3 other qualifiers, Rob, DJ & Jarrod. Great bunch of guys! Had a few too many then headed back to the Goldcoast to see if there was any cash action.....

Sat at a $1/$2 table and the action was beyond belief. I have honestly never seen anything like it in my life. The average stack was around $500 and the average pot preflop was around $80! WTF?!!!!! One guy was making all of this action...... Ron!! Rocket Ron as he soon came to be known. He was very pissed and very funny. I imagine he would be a half decent player if sober but in his state, he may as well have just burnt his cash. His standard raise was to $27 with any 2 cards and this would generally attract at least 3 calls from hopefuls with better than average cards. It was fookin brutal i tells ya. If anyone dared to raise, The Rocket would just push allin and outdraw your arse with his 65/35 LMAO. I don't think i've ever had such a laugh at the table. The guy was so pissed that everytime he pushed preflop and picked up the blinds ($3) he would tip the dealer $15!! hahaha. It really had to be seen to be believed. There was probably only 1 other decent player (if i'm included) at the table and between us we took a few nice pots and i left with $800 at 3.30am. I had to leave them to it as I was nodding off but would have loved to stay at that table for the rest of my poker career hehe. I just wish i got a picture of The Rocket to show you guys. Just his image would have you laughing hysterically...... especially after i stuck my Full Tilt logo on his shirt. Anyways, will have a look tonight to see if our friend is back. Hell..... i may go down there now to see if they're still playing lol. Notable quotes from the Rocket....... 'Can i say Bitch.....Bitch!' 'Have you got a queen?' (after EVERY flop whether a Q there or not.) 'Don't ever try that again or i'll reraise your ass!' 'Another Heineken would work well!' You really had to be there but the whole table, even the dealers (who were making $50/hr off him alone) were in a constant state of hysterical laughter.

Heading to Binions today to play in a small MTT with Rob. Good luck to DJ & Jarrod who are playing in todays $1500 WSOP event. Take it down guys!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Bloody hell it's hot. Arrived in Vegas at noon to be greeted by 38 degrees! It's like being constantly blasted by a hair dryer.Got checked in to the Goldcoast. Not bad tbh. Rooms nothing special but are spacious, have internet connection and a decent TV. What else do i need?Nipped across to the Rio and got registered for tomorrows 6max tourny. Saw Raymer and Goldstein playing which was really weird. then headed back to the Goldcoast to chill. Am bloody knackered but it was too early to sleep so i went to the poker room which only had 2/5 limit on offer. No thanks. So what to do? Put $20 into wheel of fortune slots of course :-) Spun that up to $100 and took that to the blackjack (yes i'm being smart with my roll lol) where i turned the $100 into $300! :-) Easy money lol.Left it at that for the night and have come back to the room to get some rest. It's only 6pm at the moment though (2am UK) so i might play a bit online for an hour or too. Wanna be fully awake for tomorrows excitement though.More updates to come.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Not a chance i'm falling for this one again. The last Friday 13th i remember playing was right at the start of this blog. I said i wasn't going to play but i gave in and ended up losing $2,400! I think it was my biggest losing day ever! So i'm not going to chance it this time. Yes yes, i know, it's all a load of bollox, but even thinking about it whilst playing will put doubts in my head, especially after getting sucked out on a couple of times. Have had a great fortnight ($9.5k up) so will protect that before my Vegas trip and have a day off.

Took Betty to the vets today. Bless her..... She had to have her booster vaccination. Not a happy kitten at all. We've had a nap on the couch together though and everything seems to be forgotten.

It's my birthday tomorrow so all donations are welcome if you want to buy me a beer. My username is cottlad at FTP ;) Wifey is taking me out to a posh Thai restaurant tonight which i'm well up for. Not had Thai in ages. Bring on the chicken feet! yum yum!

Right, i best go and start packing. Flight leaves early morning on Sunday from Manchester to get to Vegas lunchtime. Will be meeting Joe 'The Elegance' Beevers (namedrop) Sunday evening for a drink and to collect some pennies, then registering for the $2500 6max tourny that starts on Monday. I dunno what i'll be playing after that one..... suppose it depends how i get on. I'll be updating my blog from Vegas though.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Am running good at the moment. In the last 12 days, 3 have been losing ones. I've dropped back down to playing 2 to 3 tables max and am finding it much easier to make the correct decisions and reads rather than just playing my hole cards and the board(which is what i find myself doing when trying to play too many tables.) I'm also giving myself more time to assess the situation and extract maximum value from winning hands. Even though i can 4-5 table profitably, i don't think i can get as much value out of that as i can 2 tabling with 100% focus. Yesterday was the best day i've had for a long time ($2.2k) so lets hope i've hit a vein of form just at the right time. I can almost smell that bracelet lol.

Only played for 20 mins so far today as there just aren't any decent games open. Had to drop down to NL$200 to even get a game and am gonna hit and run now for $75 :)

Am trying to get back into golf at the moment. Had a couple of lessons lately which completely destroyed my game but things are just starting to buck up a little. Played at the weekend and shot 90 which is nowhere near where I ideally want to be, but a vast improvement on how things have been going. Maybe the lessons are now starting to pay dividends and I can get my handicap down to 12 or less by the end of summer. I'm off now to thwack another couple of buckets of balls down the driving range. Will be back to the poker later this afty.

This made me smile today. Why can't these sort of things happen more often? Justice in the form of a crushed leg for this vandal as opposed to a tap on the wrist!...............

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I fly out to Vegas on Sunday. I won a $4k package some time ago courtesy of The Hendon Mob. I'm there for a little over a week and i think i'll play event No. 31 on Monday which is a $2500 buyin 6 max tournament. I much prefer the thought of this rather than a full table event as my main game is 6 max when i play day to day. It's not that often i play in 9 or 10 handed games anymore. It's also much more comfortable playing with 6 at a table, especially if you're sat there for hour after hour, which i hope i am! Much more action too......mmmmmmmmmm action!! I am of course fully expecting to come home with a gold bracelet and tales of final table battles with Brunson, Hellmuth and co. You can't blame me for dreaming lol. Saying that, i'm going with every intention of winning the thing, as should everyone else who plays in it!

If anyone wants to buy chunks of me i'm on sale. I may play in a $1500 event later in the week if i can get backing for 50% of me ($750 total.) $75 will get you 5% if you're intrested.If not, i will play a few side event tournies at Binions/Caesars/Venetian etc. What i don't want to do is take another big chunk out of my bankroll and face the prospect of rebuilding it again like i am doing following the wedding.Anyways, i'll keep you updated on events Stateside. Anyone else heading over that way?

I've had a few people nagging me to update my blog so i thought i would apease them. Can't believe how long it's been.Since my last post i've.........

Done this...........

Been here.........

And here......................

And got this.............

I married Annamarie on the 24th March. We had a fantastic day and really enjoyed ourselves. Even i enjoyed it! I thought i'd be running about the whole day to be honest making sure everything ran smoothly but there was no need to worry. The day went perfectly (apart from the bride being 30 minutes late!!) The wedding car was late apparantley! hehe. I believe ya! The congregation were kept amused by the organist though, who at one point broke into 'why are we waiting!'

We had a great honeymoon too. We started off in Vegas for 4 nights at the Flamingo including a couple of shows and a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. La Reve was very spectacular and well worth seeing and the Rat Pack tribute show at the Plaza was entertaining but i would advise taking a hipflask with you as the cocktail service was worse than terrible. We flew from Vegas all the way to the canyon with Sundance. I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone visiting Vegas. Limo from your hotel to the airport followed by a champagne picnic in the canyon itself. Very reasonably priced too for what you get.

We didn't gamble very much at all apart from a little video poker and our main vice........ Wheel.....Of......Fortune slots. How addictive can that get!

I did walk past a few poker rooms, including the Bellagio's, and not once did i fancy playing...... Gawd i'm a crap liar....... Ya just can't on ya honeymoon though can ya! lol.

We left Vegas with a small profit and continued on to Maui. What a beautiful island. We had our own private honeymoon cottage for 10 nights which was just superb. The weather was mostly good apart from the last 3 days which we used to see some sights and for Annamarie to get savaged by dozens of mozzies at one of the many waterfalls.

We then headed back to Vegas for a night at the Bellagio before heading back to the UK the next day. The views from the room can be seen above. Pretty damned amazing!

Been grinding the tables since getting back. Weddings and honeymoons and all the things that go with them seem to add up to unholy amounts of money so i'm now in the process of building my BR cushion back up. The poker is still going well but i won't be posting a running profit anymore, although i may just mention any big wins/losses as well as any significant hands played. It wouldn't be a poker blog without that now would it!

We had a PFU forum meetup a few weekends back at Dusk Til Dawn in Nottingham. Bit of a shame that the place was full of Norwegians for their national championships because the schedule changed significantly and the tournies we wanted to play were no longer running. So, we went down the local Gala on the Friday and played a £20 rebuy donkathon. There were lots of Scandies there too and the action was fairly manic to say the least. None of us made the money.... think i finished about 17th/65 or so. Sat night we all went to DTD and the management were extremely kind in finding us a private table and a dealer so that we could play some SNG's. We had a great night and will definately have to do that again. We'll play a tournament next time so we can all use our new PFU card protectors! :-)

Anyways, that's what i've been doing for the last couple of months. Oh, we also got a kitten which we named Betty. Damned thing loves drawing blood at the moment so having to wear 3 pairs of socks and leather chaps hehe. I never realized they did such smelly poos too. It'll be a sack and a brick and a visit to the canal if she doesn't buck her ideas up! lol. Bless her.

I see Amafish has set himself a crazy SNG challenge and has taken $1.5k of prop bets lol. Oopsadaisy dude. I reckon you could have made it if you'd pulled ya finger out!

Am off to Vegas again next week to play at least 1 WSOP event and a few side tournies. I'll update before i go and also from Vegas. A bracelet or 2 would be nice ;)

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